Bruce & Natasha
Bruce sat on the floor, watching the unadorned little spruce standing directly in front of him. In the morning, he went to the store with Peter and let young Stark choose his Christmas decorations because he had no experience in them and decided to make a beautiful Christmas for Natasha. Their first Christmas in a new apartment. So now he was sitting on the ground trying to catch the Christmas spirit. He had been listening to classic Christmas carols for an hour because Bruce had always been more of a classic. He had eaten the candy Peter and Pepper had baked a long time ago. Not a trace of snow outside, and he was slowly beginning to feel lost.
Bruce never really celebrated Christmas. Not after his mother died. Years later, he was in terrible pain. He was still a child. There were times when he feared his father would return. That he would marry his Aunt Susan, who took him in after the tragedy. He remembered Susan well. She was always nice to him. He also remembered that Christmas was pretty nice when he was with her, he just was never in the mood to celebrate them. At university, he always preferred to dive into work, then there was an accident with gamma radiation, and then he went to third world countries. They only had Christmas parties with the Avengers and that was it. He simply had woefully little experience with this holiday.
"You look like a lost puppy," teased him Nat, who returned from work about five minutes ago and found her boyfriend sitting on the ground with his eyes glued to a tree, with absolutely no idea of her presence.
The scientist blinked a few times before turning to the redhead. "Nat! You're home,” he said with a smile and jumped to his feet so he could hug her.
"It's been about five minutes, but the tree is obviously more interesting than me," she laughed. She enjoyed picking up on him so much.
"I'm sorry, I," he began, but immediately paused again. He stepped back and scratched the back of his neck nervously, as usual. "I wanted to surprise you, but somehow I can't handle it."
Nat flared at his words. "We probably aren't the best ones to decorate the Christmas tree, but you know what? It does not matter. The main thing is that we will do it together and we will have a good time," she told him with a small smile. As it turned out, living a simple life was harder than it seemed. But they both tried. She never celebrated Christmas herself, but she remembered Peter telling her how they had decorated the tree with Michelle. The smile didn't fade from his face the rest of the story, and Nat decided they were having a good time.
"You're right," he agreed, giving her one of his happy smiles.
"I adore you," she said a little shyly. "By the way, Pepper said something about delicious gingerbread," she said quickly.
Bruce rolled his eyes at her in a little startled. "Yes, they were really excellent. I ate them," he muttered embarrassed.
"I'll just forgive you because we are going to lunch with them tomorrow, so I'll get my gingerbread, which I won't share with you," she told him with narrowed eyes. "Let's go to that tree instead."
So together they embarked on the decoration, which at most of the time seemed more like a chaotic struggle with ornaments, if not with the tree itself. In the end, however, they succeeded, and even though it was not the most beautiful Christmas tree to look at, they were satisfied. It was their Christmas tree, and nothing else mattered.
"Just so you know, I adore you, too," Bruce whispered later that night as they sat on the couch watching Grinch, whom Peter said they must see. And who were they to protest their nephew?
"Watch the movie so you don't miss anything," the redhead whispered back, but there was a smile on her face that she hid by drinking from her mug of hot chocolate.
Unfortunately, this year was not too easy for them either, but Natasha was sure that only the good was waiting for them now. As long as they are together, they will manage everything that fate puts in their way.